David Rosenthal: recommendation

Transcript context

…He loved this private golf course that he owned because he could take people out and restrict them from ever talking business. So he got to be jovial and social, exactly on his terms. Yeah, he doesn't talk business anymore. After he gets the get-out-of-jail-free card, literally, he's the happiest man in the world. They're on the golf course, he gets the messenger running up. The Supreme Court ruled against Standard Oil, it's going to be broken up. This is how the legend goes. He gets the news. He turns to the priest smiling and he says, Father Lennon, have you some money? Everybody in the golfing party is like, geez, John, I know this is bad that Standard's going to get broken, but you're not going to be bankrupt. You don't need the Catholic priest here and Tarrytown. You got some real estate assets at least that you can sell off and support yourself in your old age here. Father Lennon's like, why do you ask, John? Rockefeller says, because if you did, you should buy some Standard Oil stock right now. He's so right. This is a great irony. This is the best, best thing that ever happened to Standard Oil’s share price, not at that exact moment, of course. At that exact moment, the share price went tumbling. But in the long run, to Rockefeller, the line and it's true is that he made more money in retirement and after Standard Oil was broken up than he did while he was working, Chernow writes here. This was literally "the luckiest stroke of Rockefeller's career. Precisely because he lost the antitrust suit, Rockefeller was converted from a mere millionaire with an estimated net worth of $300 million in 1911 into something just short of history's first billionaire." Remember, he owned a quarter of the company trust, whatever the thing. He basically never sold shares. He was always a buyer from other people. Anytime he had a dispute with a partner or another board member, I'll buy you out.…

Stored transcript either side of the excerpt. The highlighted words are the published quote; the surrounding text is unedited source, never generated.